Break Weapon EVENT - Play in conjunction with an attack that is considered a Power Blow. If your opponent blocks this attack, there is a 1 in 6 chance his weapon breaks. He is Disarmed and does not roll to regain his weapon each turn. (Restricted to 3) This card seems at first glance almost useless. Your opponent can see it coming, and they can dodge or play Holy Ground. It's placement as a Rare in the Movie Edition is somewhat puzzling. It is consistent with other ME methods to break a weapon such as Honed Weapon and Parking Garage. However, with the release of Watcher's Chronicles, Break Weapon deserves a second look. Game-mechanics questions first. The die roll for breakage is made on your opponent's turn. Therefore, cards you play on your turn (Iron Will, Practice Practice), to modify a die roll made on your turn, are useless. It makes no difference whether your opponent Power Blocks or not. If she blocks but doesn't Power Block your attack, she takes damage (typically two points) before her weapon has a chance of breaking. If she Power Blocks, she takes no damage but her weapon still may break. So that's how Break Weapon works. What can you do with it? The first thing to look at the ways that you can break a weapon. The most common, thanks to the widespread distribution of certain promos, is Forged Steel. A normal Disarm, if you have a Forged Steel in play, is a far more reliable way to snap an opponent's sword. An opponent can't dodge or play Holy Ground against your Disarm Event. Honed Weapon, which requires that your opponent _make_ a Power Blow, is far more of a crap shoot than Break Weapon ever has been. Parking Garage's effect is very close to that of a broken weapon. The only substantial difference is that while in the Parking Garage, if you are disarmed normally, you can still play Recover Weapon (yeah, right :) ). If you have a broken weapon, you can't. But that's rarely an issue. Hidden Shrine (or Collapse if you have Forged Steel out) requires you have the appropriate rare Location out, and that you probably play some of the cards mentioned for Disarm so you don't break your own weapon. And...that's it. Currently, these are the only four other ways to "break" a weapon (i.e., make it unrecoverable by a die roll). There are a few other odd circumstances where it might happen (Master's Disarm/Nakano and Connor if you break your own weapon), but you're not going to see that happen very often. Of these four methods, Disarm/Forged Steel is undeniably the most effective. But...you have to get that Forged Steel down and keep it down. Thanks to Hogg, the use of Misfortune has become a _lot_ more prevalent. If you don't use Misfortune, you can't take Kern's head. And if you use Thief, you aren't going to be helping your own cause much if you want to use Objects. Granted, if you're bound and determined to keep that Forged Steel out (due primarily to Alex Johnson, see CotW #49), you can do it despite its restriction number of one. Still, you're going to have to sit around waiting for those Iron Wills and Circular Parries or Practice Practices. And you'll want a Misfortune or two yourself if your opponent uses Extra Weapon. That's a lot of cards when you add it all up. Dojo helps here, saving the necessary cards until the time is right. Of course, you have to spend more turns' worth of Special play to get those Dojos down and store stuff. Honed Weapon is a joke - don't even bother. Parking Garage isn't bad, and we'll be reviewing that in a few issues (CotW #53). Still, you've got to play it and keep it down, then play several of the cards (Disarm, Iron Will, Circular Parry, Practice Practice, Dojo) mentioned above. Hidden Shrine and Collapse/Forged Steel have a tendency to backfire on you, and require a fair amount of set-up. Hidden Shrine, like Break Weapon, requires that your opponent roll on his turn, making him immune to Iron Will and Practice Practice. That leaves us with Break Weapon. Compared to the items mentioned above, BW is simplicity itself. That may be bad: all of our reviewers comment on your inability to modify your opponent's die roll. But it can be good. By the time you dump all the stuff to make Disarm/Forged Steel work 60-70%+ of the time and replace with Break Weapon stuff, you can reduce your deck size considerably. As always, an Event can't be ignored or removed from play. Your opponent can Misfortune that Forged Steel, or move the battle from the Parking Garage or Ruins to the Catwalk. But once you play Break Weapon, there's absolutely nothing your opponent can do to stop its effect. There is one card that helps with Break Weapon: Cursed. This often- overlooked card helps to "modify" your opponent's die roll by forcing them to roll over. So if you decide to use Break Weapon, add Cursed to your deck. Your next step is making that Power Blow. Due to Watcher's Chronicles there's a new "cheap" way to make Power Blows without playing a Special: Master Swordsman (CotW #35). However, Slan and to a lesser degree the Kurgan can make "cheap" Power Blows as well. Master Swordsman also has the advantage that once you _have_ broken their weapon, you can proceed to make more "cheap" Power Blows once you've taken care of their dodging and Holy Ground capability. How do you do that? The old "card in play" methods are still the best: Carl, Catwalk, and Master's Advance. Lunge (CotW #36) can't be used with a Master Swordsman/Power Blow (it's not a basic attack). However, if you're Slan, making basic attacks a Power Blow won't be much of a problem. Play Lunge and you've still got a slot available to play Break Weapon. In fact, Lunge is the new key to using Break Weapon. Make a Power Blow out of a basic attack, play Break Weapon, and Lunge it. They _can't_ dodge, unless they want to rely on the vagaries of an Exertion. Take out their Holy Ground capability via Carl, and you're set. They block, you force rerolls with Cursed as necessary until their weapon snaps. If you're lucky, you'll gain the additional bonus that they'll have to Exert for a Power Block (losing five cards) or take the two damage. A weakness with this strategy of using Cursed is that if they're using Iron Will or Practice Practice themselves, you're not going to force them to roll that 1. Finally, when analyzing Break Weapon or any other weapon-breaking strategy, we have to look at what your opponent can do to rearm. Misfortune will help you under other circumstances (Kern's Hogg) as well as dealing with Extra Weapon. The real threat is Watcher/Fair Fight, which can only be countered by a TCG. Fortunately, the new Watcher's Oath card (CotW #46) can counter this Watcher. So which Personas should use Break Weapon? The ones who make most effective use of the cards mentioned above. Slan can make "cheap" Power Blows to his heart's content, use Lunge to enhance them, and still be playing one Special per turn, whether it be Break Weapon itself, or a Carl to stop those Holy Grounds for the turns after he has successfully used Break Weapon. Kalas can slap down some anti-dodge Situations and Locations (Catwalk works best for him and Slan, of course), then Master Swordsman/Break Weapon. After that, he can Trip/Master Swordsman against his disarmed opponent and Power Blow away, or make an Exertion Power Blow on a basic attack and play Lunge. If his opponent tries to escape to Holy Ground, unleash the standard Kalas Stalk/Head Shot combo and finish the game. The Kurgan and Fitzcairn are also potential Break Weapon users because of their ability to make "cheap" Power Blows and anti-dodge Trip against a disarmed opponent, respectively. Fitzcairn can Master Swordsman/Break Weapon just as well as Kalas. However, both of these Personas need to rely on Carl for anti-Holy Ground usage, rather than Stalk. Who else should use Break Weapon? Currently, not a lot of other Personas. If you're pursuing a heavy-duty Power Blow strategy anyway, Break Weapon _might_ make a good addition to your deck. Personas like this are typically Connor and Duncan. Kern can also do well: he can Exert for multiple attacks, play Flashing Blade, then make one of the attacks a Power Blow via Hogg and use it with Break Weapon. In sealed deck, Break Weapon will, if nothing else, give you something to do with those common Cursed cards. Your opponent has far fewer of the "escapes" mentioned above: cards like Extra Weapon or Holy Ground are not going to be seen as often either. A broken weapon in sealed deck is even more of a "game over" indicator. So overall, Steve gives Break Weapon a _2_. There are a few powerful combos. The main problem with Break Weapon is still its "accuracy": Cursed isn't a good bet even if you have six. However, it (and Lunge) are the only real way to make Break Weapon useful. An opponent with a broken weapon is typically a dead opponent. It's well worth your time, and less prone to negation, if you can set a weapon break up. BW's placement as a rare would be well-deserved since other weapon-breaking cards are also Rares . . . except for Forged Steel. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Might have some use... except that Disarm + Forged Steel/Parking Garage is actually easier to do successfully. Why? Because you can't use Practice Practice or Iron Will on this (it's rolled on your opponent's turn). Might see a little use with Lunge, but I personally would have better cards to play with. Does tend to be a bit of a heart-stopper in sealed deck, though. Rick - Abstain Hank - Useful for Slan disarm decks. I've used it before, but there are other cards (Forged Steel, Parking Garage) which stay in play and work well with Disarm strategies. Alan - A _much_ more useful card with the availability of Lunge and Lighthouse, both of which do a good job of restricting the play of dodges (Editor's note: if your opponent is Disarmed, they can't attack and therefore don't trigger the effects of Lighthouse against themselves. This only works if they attack you, fail, you Break Weapon/Power Blow, and they can't "escape" the Lighthouse on their turn). Slan and Kurgan find this card's best use. Unfortunately, there is a certain powerful promo that does a better job... Jim - A good card for Disarm decks. Unfortunately the die roll is made on your opponent's turn so Iron Will doesn't help. Wayne - I'm not a big fan of this cards only because you have to wait for your opponent to not only attack - but your attack also has to be a Power Blow. I would simply play Disarm if I was going to try and disarm somebody. Prodipto - This is useful in a Disarm deck, particularly if you have anti- dodge cards or effects (such as Master's Advance, or an attack that restricts dodging). The only problem is that the 1 in 6 chance isn't very high, and can't be modified, since it's your opponent who causes the die roll, and therefore Iron Will or Practice, Practice is of no use. Allen - A question I've often heard from beginners is "how can I effectively use Break Weapon?" I've never been able to come up with an adequate response. Your opponent can always see it coming, and you can't improve your die-roll. Basically, Break Weapon is a very low odds crap-shoot. You might get lucky, but it's not worth counting on. I'd skip this one. Ratings Overall: Steve 2 Jeff 3 Rick N/A Hank 6 Alan 5 Jim 5 Wayne 3 Prodipto 4 Allen 1 Average: 3.63 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Dead End Alley LOCATION - While in the Dead End Alley no Back Away cards may be played. With the introduction of Watcher's Chronicles, we get a new type of dodge: Evade. With it, it's time to take a look at Dead End Alley, a Location that relates to one's ability to dodge attacks. Game-mechanic questions first. There aren't a lot: Dead End Alley is fairly straight-forward. You are only restricted by this Location as long as it is in play. At the beginning of your turn you may remove DEA (by playing another Location, Illusory Terrain, Get Away..., etc.). You are then free to play a Back Away. You may also play Back Away, and then a Dead End Alley. And of course, you can use Reconnaissance and ignore this Location entirely. That's it. So what can you do with it? Well, first of all Dead End Alley stops Pistols. Against many Kurgan decks, that might be enough right there. If an opponent can't Back Away, they can't play Pistol. This leads us to our next point: Dead End Alley is the antithesis of Catwalk: the former lets you play _any_ dodge except Back Away, the latter lets you play _only_ Back Away as a dodge. The more a Persona benefits from Catwalk, the more they are hurt by Dead End Alley, and vice versa. In any game where you're playing a "agile" Persona and using Dead End Alley, while your opponent uses a "clumsy" Persona with Catwalk, you can expect a constant back-and-forth as you move from the street-level Alley to the heights of a Catwalk, and back again. With Dead End Alley, as with many Locations, you are best off waiting to play it until one of two things happens: you have more than one in your hand, or you need to avoid the hazardous effects of your opponent's Location by removing it. Why wait? Because if you only have one Dead End Alley in your hand, your opponent may then play one on his turn. Presto - you've got no Locations left to remove his. If he's using a Catwalk, you're trapped with nothing you can do but Back Away until you draw another DEA. Of course, if your choice is saving your Location, or playing it to avoid a damaging attack, by all means play the Location. Also play it ASAP if its part of a combo and you're ready to cut loose. But otherwise a conservative strategy is generally best. There are two cards you may want to use if you use Dead End Alley. The first, oddly, is Back Away. You can always dump it with a Dojo or Master's Stratagem, or discard it to Master's Advance, if you don't need it, or if you want the extra nine-grid coverage. The second card is Reconnaissance, which is almost always playable. You can use it on your own Dead End Alley whether you want to play Back Away or not, if nothing else. We'll look at who should use Dead End Alley below. However, _why_ you should use it is important. Keeping your opponent from playing Back Aways is important only if they have some reason to _want_ to play Back Aways. There are three major reasons why to play it. The first is multi-area attacks. While horizontal and vertical Slashes can be stopped by Guards, Connor's and Duncan's diagonal Slashes can not. Annie's nine-grid Master's Attack is also difficult to stop. Eliminate your opponent's ability to play Back Away, and you've eliminated potentially _all_ of his ways to play defenses against these attacks. Master's Attack/Unblockable is also not bad here. Stick Slan in the Alley and he can't dodge this either. However, that Master's Attack can be targeted by Alertness/Block, so it's not as sure a thing. The second reason is Power Blow. Note that most of the Power Blow types (see below) are those who only have Back Away. So they're not going to want to use Dead End Alley unless they want to rely on Reconnaissance. However, Duncan and Connor are also strong Power Blow types because of their Persona abilities. An opponent restricted in his ability to dodge will have to deal with your Power Blows. The third reason is Hidden attacks. If your opponent can't see that attack, they're going to want as much defensive coverage as possible. Dead End Alley cuts into that by removing Back Away from the equation. Who should use Dead End Alley? To determine this, let's look at the various Personas and see how "agile" they are. Dead End Alley's main impact is on those who only have Back Away as a dodge. This currently includes Slan, the Kurgan, Kern, and Kalas. Lock them in the Dead End Alley, and they lose their one and only unassisted way to play a nine-grid defense, or to dodge. This leaves them with less options against Hidden attacks. Of course, these Personas are prone to making Power Blows and dealing with Hidden attacks, so that may not be as big a handicap as you might wish. The Alley has a lesser impact on two new Personas: Fitzcairn and Annie. They don't have a nine-grid dodge other than Back Away. They do have Evade, but this is somewhat limited for protection against Hidden attacks. Fitzcairn does have Master's Block, which can cover all nine grid-areas. Annie has Duck, a six grid-area card. It is more restrictive than Connor's or Nakano's but still effective. The next echelon of dodge/agility is Personas who have Back Away and Dodge. This includes Richie, Luther, Nefertiri, Xavier, Khan, Katana, and Kastagir. They lose access to half of their dodge arsenal due to Dead End Alley, but can still play a nine-grid Dodge. At the next level we find Connor and Nakano. They have Back Away and Dodge, and also Duck. This six grid-area card not only gives them good coverage, but provides a Hidden attack. Of course, with Connor the issue of coverage against Hidden attacks is a moot point. He also has Master's Dodge, giving him a potential three more dodges. Next we find the often-overlooked Generic persona. With Watcher's Chronicles, this "persona" becomes far more agile. Currently, they can have six Dodges, six Back Aways, four Evades (two each from Fitzcairn and Annie), four Ducks (Connor, Nakano, Duncan, Annie), two Jumps (Duncan and Amanda), and two Side Steps (Amanda). This gives them 24 dodges, compared to Nakano's 18 and Connor's 21. This number will rise further with the release of The Gathering. And at the very top of the dodge/agility ladder are Amanda and Duncan. Back Away is only a small fraction of their total dodge cards. Between them, they can use Dodge, Duck, Jump, Master's Dodge, Distract, and Left/Right Side Steps. This gives Amanda 30 dodges, of which only six are Back Away. Duncan gains a potential 27. Neither are going to be seriously hurt by Dead End Alley. Examining our list of agility rankings, and the reasons stated above, it becomes obvious that three Personas should use Dead End Alley: Duncan, Connor, and Amanda. They can all make Hidden attacks fairly easily. They can all play multi-area attacks easily. Duncan and Connor can make Power Blows at an advantage. Annie Devlin may also wish to use this Location. She can rely on Duck and Evade for dodging. If her opponent can't deal with her Dead End Alley, they'll be in trouble if she unleashes multiple Hidden attacks or Power Blows via Run Through or Battle Rage, respectively. Dead End Alley is actually one of a Generic's strongest Locations. Nakano can also gain a strong advantage. Fitzcairn, Richie, and Katana have Master's Block, which can give them some extra coverage when restricted in their ability to Back Away. For the other Personas with Back Away and Dodge only, Dead End Alley is no worse a choice than Catwalk - both render half of their dodges unusable. Dead End Alley does help them avoid Ranged Attacks by preventing an opponent from playing them. For Back Away-only Personas, Dead End Alley should not even be considered. So overall, Steve gives Dead End Alley a _7_. It should always be your default Location choice when using Duncan or Amanda. If you don't have a specific Location strategy for them, use DEA. Several other Personas can benefit from Dead End Alley as well. Properly applied, it can cripple the dodge ability of Back Away-only Personas - a number that will probably increase as the game expands. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Well, this is my least favorite of any Location. It's very narrow, and only tends to matter if your opponent is unlucky enough to only draw Back Away or is playing a Persona whose only dodges are Back Away. Even then, you have to keep the Location down and hope he doesn't have Recons. Me, I can't see using it with any of the current personas; there always seem to be better choices. Rick - Abstain Hank - Back Away has become the dodge of choice in many decks expecting Catwalks galore. I've used Dead End Alley in my Amanda decks, and I'd use it in any dodge-heavy deck that doesn't use Back Away. It's useful and balanced. Alan - Good Location for those Personas with many dodges, but really only useful against those with Back Away. Not one of my favorite Locations; there are more useful ones I would rather use, particularly with the release of Watcher's Chronicles. Jim - An excellent Location for dodge-intensive attack decks that can generate a decent number of Hidden attacks. This is one of Duncan's preferred Locations. Wayne - A very powerful location. Since many Immortals do not have dodges, the value of this card has gone up. It would benefit Conner and Duncan the most - but I prefer Mountain Cave over this card. Prodipto - This Location is great for Amanda or Duncan. It can also be useful to Connor or Nakano. It's particularly good if you're making a lot of Hidden attacks or Power Blows, especially against big bruisers like Slan, Kurgan or Kern, who only have Back Aways for dodges. It is also great for limiting Dodge-heavy cheese decks (although not as good as Catwalk). Allen - A good Location for nimble dodge decks, especially when facing those big bruisers with only Back Away (or anyone trying to use Catwalk). Use it to prevent your opponents from avoiding the consequences of their power blows, which you easily dodge and then make a (hidden) counterstrike. There is nothing very subtle here, but it is effective. Ratings Overall: Steve 7 Jeff 4 Rick N/A Hank 7 Alan 3 Jim 7 Wayne 7 Prodipto 7 Allen 7 Average: 6.13 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Master's Endurance SITUATION - While Master's Endurance is in play, you are not required to discard down to your Ability during your Draw/Discard Phase. Well, _here's_ a card that at first glance appears useless, particularly as a Master card. Even Master's Domain is of _some_ use. At first glance, and up to the Movie Edition release, all Master's Endurance does is let you potentially keep cards the same turn you take damage. If you're at 15 Ability and take a hit that reduces you to 13, you don't have to discard down at 13 at the end of your turn. Of course, the question there is, "So what?" You're probably going to play a card or two anyway, leaving you with about 13 cards in your hand. This does highlight one feature of Master's Endurance: in these days of massive single-turn damage (Bloodlust, Flurry Strikes, Sedarius), this disparity is greater. If you are hit for six, you're probably _not_ going to play six cards and reach your new Ability/hand-size of 9. This can be useful in an end-game, particularly if it leaves you with a defense after your Ability has been reduced to 0. You can hang on to that Upper Guard, for instance. Still, it's by no means an assurance of usefulness. So at best, pre-Watcher's Chronicles, Master's Endurance would have been worth a 2 or so, tops. However, times change, and each new expansion hopefully breathes new life into old cards. Let's see what WC does for Master's Endurance. Just one thing. Cat and Mouse/Draw (CotW #43). This new card lets you draw one card for each Cat and Mouse in play. Get enough cards and you'll be above your Ability. Master's Endurance lets you keep those. Master's Endurance and the Cat and Mouse/Draw combo aren't bad. It's not going to give you a lot by itself, though. If you're lucky, you get all six Cat and Mouses down, and you might eventually end up with three or four extra cards. That's not bad - cards are _power_ in Highlander. The more you have access to, in your hand, in Dojos, or through card cycling, the more effectively you can respond to your opponent's actions. Still, this strategy could use a boost. There's two tactics that can do this. The first is using a relatively recent promotional card: Measure of a Man. This Event/Special lets you draw a card for every Situation: Plot you have in play. This means once you've built up a stack of 4+ Cat and Mouse/Draws, you can start playing MoaM to draw _more_ cards. If you're playing 2-3 cards a turn, and drawing four, and keeping the extras, you'll end up a bit ahead. The other tactic here is to use Xavier or his Quickening. Instead of being limited to six Cat and Mouse, you can now have twelve. Not all twelve need to be Cat and Mouse/Draw. No matter what types of CaMs you have on the table, if the eighth one you play is CaM/Draw, you draw eight cards. Play 2-3, and keep the extra five thanks to Master's Endurance. So mix six Cat and Mouse/Endurance-Discards and six CaM/Draws. This can start off slow, but once the sixth and greater kicks in, your opponent is going to be hurting (even Nefertiri types for the Endurance burn version) _and_ you'll have a large pool of cards in your hand to draw on. Or mix CaM/Draw with the other three versions of Cat and Mouse to your tastes. In addition to this, add Measure of a Man and you have a real potential to see 30+ card hand-sizes. Even those Cat and Mouse/non-Draws that didn't let you draw cards now count towards drawing new card thanks to MoaM. If nothing else, this provides a decent use for the ill-considered Xavier Quickening for combat-type decks. This also raises the possibility of using Measure of a Man without Cat and Mouse/Draw, but the Xavier Quickening. Keep zapping away at your opponent's attacks, defenses, and/or Endurance with those three types of Cat and Mouses (up to 12 times), while playing MoaM to draw extra cards and Master's Endurance to use them. Who should use Master's Endurance? In the above scenario, Xavier is the obvious choice. This can enhance cheese decks, but it can also be a major pain to an opponent if you switch to combat-oriented Xave decks. Any Persona using Xavier's Disguise can do well, but those who have Plot augmentation (the Kurgan with Disguise, Annie with Escape, and Kalas with Forgery) will do best. So overall, Steve gives Master's Endurance a _5_. It received a boost from Watcher's Chronicles and the most recent batch of promos. It forms part of one very dangerous combo, but is otherwise still limited. I wouldn't rank it the worst Master card currently, though. Watcher's Chronicles does raise it above Master's Domain in utility. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - A somewhat overlooked card; except that it's been overlooked for good reason -- it's not that great. Seems to be useful only if you're playing with Heroic Deed/Save the Day... and when was the last time you saw that being competitive? Rick - Hank - I've never used this card. Since you can't draw past your Ability, you're stuck with the cards you have 'til you get down to your "real" Ability anyway... and I've always found _something_ to toss, unless it's near the end of the game. I have better uses for Master slots. Alan - Not an overly-useful card; certainly not one I would waste a precious Master slot on, as there are other Master cards I find more useful. Definitely the weakest Master card available. Jim - Master's Endurance is only of moderate usefulness. It only works if you lose ability which is what everyone typically tries to avoid. Wayne - I have never found an effective use for Master's Endurance. It seems to be more of just a nuisance card than something you would play in a tournament. Prodipto - This is a particularly good card for Nefertiri. She can draw up to her ability _before_ the ability loss, and then save having to discard down. In a deck with Bassett and Hotchkiss, Nefertiri can put her opponent at a severe disadvantage early on in the game, and _draw all her attacks back up_ before the end of her turn. It's also not a bad card to have if you are using a lot of mutually damaging events such as Angry Mob. Allen - A neat effect, but normally useful only if you are taking damage. This often translates into "only useful if you are losing." I dislike including cards in my deck that are only useful if I am losing. With the advent of Watcher Chronicles, however, Master Endurance gets a big boost when used with Cat and Mouse: Draw and/or Dojo. Holding 20 to 25 cards in your hand is nothing to sneeze at. If you are not utilizing one of these combos, however, there are better Master cards. Ratings Overall: Steve 5 Jeff 4 Rick N/A Hank 3 Alan 3 Jim 4 Wayne 3 Prodipto 5 Allen 6 Average: 4.13